All new documents are based on existing templates.
All templates contain at least one style, which is a base style,
and some may contain details of the page size and printable area
as well as text, pictures, headers or footers.
To create a new document:
RISC OS: Click Select on the Fireworkz icon on the icon bar.
Windows: Click the New tool button
on the toolbar
(or choose New from the File menu).
If you have more than one template file available,
a list of available templates will appear for you to choose from.
If there is only one template available, a new document based on it will be opened automatically.
Select the template you want from the list and
click Create,
or simply double-click on the desired template in the list.
A new document based on the chosen template will be opened.
It will contain all the styles and any text and pictures included in that template.
Alternatively, you can create a new document by double-clicking
on a template's file icon in the Filer (RISC OS) or File Explorer (Windows).
Note that this is only valid for templates that have been
saved with the All option selected.
Yet another way of creating a new document on Windows is to right-click in File Explorer,
and choose Colton Software Fireworkz document
from the New menu.
Windows creates an empty Fireworkz document file and prompts you for a name for that file.
This document can then be opened as with any other.
Opening existing documents
Much of the time you will want to re-open existing documents for further editing.
RISC OS: Simply double-click on a Fireworkz file's icon
in a directory display to load it into Fireworkz.
This will cause Fireworkz to be loaded, if it was not already.
Windows: Simply double-click on a Fireworkz file's icon
in File Explorer to load it into Fireworkz.
This will cause Fireworkz to be loaded, if it was not already.
Note that Fireworkz files have the .fwk extension, although this is likely to be hidden.
Alternatively, if you already have Fireworkz loaded,
click the Open document tool button on the toolbar
(or choose Open from the File menu).
The Open dialogue box will appear.
Find the drive and directory you want to locate the file in.
Choose the file format you want and select the desired file.
Click Open.
The file will be opened in Fireworkz.
Templates
You can save yourself a lot of time and effort by saving your page designs as templates.
If you do this, you will be able to create new documents based on them without
having to go through all the procedures listed in the sections above.
Instead, the page details will be predefined and styles will already be set up.
Template documents may also include text, such as letterheads or fax headers,
and this is another way to save time.
For examples of stationery and template files,
look at the directory Templates in the Examples directory.
This includes several useful templates, for documents such as memos, faxes and letters.
A small number of templates are included in the Fireworkz application, in the directory
RISC OS: !Fireworkz.Resources.UK.Templates
Windows: %APPDATA%\Colton Software\Fireworkz\Templates .
These are the templates that are presented for selection in the
Create Document dialogue box.
Setting up a template file
Setting up a template file is no different from creating an ordinary document.
Any document can be saved as a template.
Enter the text you want, e.g. your name and address for a letterhead, in the style you want it.
Add any pictures that you want to include,
such as a logo to appear on a letterhead,
or a backdrop.
Saving a template
To save a file as a template, first set it up as described in the previous section then do the following:
Choose Save template
from the File menu.
The Save template dialogue box will appear.
Type in the name of the new template (ending in the extension .fwt if on Windows).
Choose one of the options for what to include in the template by selecting the appropriate radio button.
You can save the entire document (styles, other definitions, pictures and text),
just the styles defined in the document, or a single style.
If you choose to save a single style you should select one from the list by clicking on it.
If you want to create documents based on the template, you must choose the
All option.
Click Save.
The template will be saved in the directory
RISC OS: <Choices$Write>.Fireworkz.Template
Windows: %APPDATA%\Colton Software\Fireworkz\Templates .
This means that the template will then appear on the template selector list when you create a new document.
If you do not want to save the template in the standard location, you should type in the full pathname.
On RISC OS, you can drag the file icon to the directory where you want it to be saved.
Removing templates from the template selector
RISC OS: Use the Filer to access the directory Choices:Fireworkz.Template (for user-defined templates) or !Fireworkz.Resources.UK.Templates (for supplied templates)
and delete the template files you no longer want, or rename them as desired.
A quick way to access files stored in Fireworkz' Choices directory
is to Shift-click Select on the Fireworkz icon on the icon bar.
Windows: Use the File Explorer to access the directory %APPDATA%\Colton Software\Fireworkz\Templates
(this contains both supplied and user-defined templates)
and delete the template files you no longer want, or rename them as desired.
Using templates to reformat existing documents
Once you have created a document its formatting is not fixed.
You can add a template file to the document to change its formatting.
You can add a template to a document to reformat it, or drop a
document file icon on to a new document based on a template to format it.
If you use a template which simply contains one or more styles that are distinct from the ones already in use,
the document will not be reformatted but the additional styles from the template
will appear in the style list and you can use them in the document.
Reformatting documents in RISC OS
Either:
Load the document that you want to format.
Open the directory window containing the template you want to use,
either a directory containing your own templates,
or the standard templates which will be in Choices:Fireworkz.Template .
Drag the template file icon into the open document window.
When you release the mouse button the document will be reformatted using the rules outlined below.
or:
Double-click the template icon to create a new document based on it.
Drag the file icon of the document you want to reformat into the new document window.
The document will be reformatted using the rules outlined below.
Reformatting documents in Windows
Open the document you want to reformat.
Choose Insert file from the
File menu
(or Ctrl-click the Open tool button on the toolbar).
Navigate to the directory containing the template file that you want to use:
either a directory containing your own templates,
or the standard templates which will be in %APPDATA%\Colton Software\Fireworkz\Templates
and select that template file.
Click Open.
The template will be added to the document, which will be reformatted using the rules outlined below.
Rules for merging templates into documents
The following rules are applied when a new template is dragged into a document:
Styles in the new template replace styles with the same name in the document.
Other styles from the new template are added to the style list in the document.
This is how you can transfer styles from one document to another,
even though they have been created from separate templates:
you don't need to recreate styles in each document.